Institute

The Freiburg Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology combines the ethnographic study of local lifeworlds with the analysis of global contexts and topical societal questions. We understand our institute as a space for exchange, collaborative engagement, and critical reflection. Compared to larger departments, the relatively small size of our institute fosters a personal working and learning environment as well as close interaction between staff and students.

Research and teaching at the institute are characterised by a broad geographical orientation with regional foci on Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe. This provides students with manifold opportunities to develop their own regional and thematic interests.

All staff members combine long-standing and in-depth familiarity with their respective research regions with strong theoretical grounding and a global perspective, not least shaped through the close intellectual exchange within the institute. Our research is particularly concentrated in the fields of environmental anthropology, economic anthropology, and political anthropology. Through these thematic foci, we are involved in a range of local and international collaborations as well as interdisciplinary research contexts.